The agenda set forth in Gregory VII's secret memo, the Papal Dictation of 1075, finally bore fruit in the Concordat of London. Here are records of all three papal attempts to get control of Britain:
♦ Pope's demand of fealty rejected by William the Conqueror (text, c. 1075)
♦ Papal legate's bid to rule Britain also rejected (Eadmer's account, 1101)
♦ Pope's demand to appoint land-owning clerics accepted by Henry I (Eadmer's account of the Concordat of London, 1107)
The Church taught that prayers could help save souls and also that they could be farmed out to holy men ― for a price. This gave the pope the leverage to acquire a quarter of the land in England, for the prayers of the clerics were seen as indispensible for king and country. Even William the Conqueror begs the pope: “Pray for us, and for the well-being of our realm”. Here is a short, revealing excerpt from Professor Terry Jones.
After the Norman Conquest the Archbishop of York secured bishoprics in most of Scotland and this drew it under the 1107 Concordat of London. Then in 1188 the Scottish Church came under the pope. Only the islands of Orkney and Shetland remained part of the Norwegian bishopric, and this continued even after 1266 when the Norse king lost political control. Thus they were bound by the 1277 Norwegian Concordat until the Scottish church was formed in 1472.
Even the earliest charter of civil rights was condemned by the papacy. This was the Magna Carta Libertatum or The Great Charter of the Liberties of England. Pope Innocent III had declared King John to be his vassal, and now "his" vassal had, without papal authorisation, granted rights to his subjects. The pope therefore considered the Magna Carta to be interference with his ownership of England and proclaimed it invalid ― "forever."
England has several different kinds of ecclesiastical courts. These use religious law, such as the Islamic sharia, Jewish halakha and Christian canon law. Church of England courts are now restricted to internal church matters, but not the others. In 2012 a bill was put before the UK parliament that would forbid sharia courts to claim official sanction as arbitration tribunals.
What did the Pope’s September 2010 trip cost Britain? Between the announcement of the Pope’s first state visit to Britain until he arrived half a year later, the projected costs that were acknowledged rose by about a half, while the Government tried to keep secret other expenses, including the enormous security bill. British taxpayers were obliged to foot most of the bill for a ceremony to move a 19th-century theologian one step closer to sainthood ― in the midst of brutal government austerity cuts. And to help pay for the Pope’s visit the UK Government quietly diverted money meant for the world’s poorest people.
